D-Day and Burma Star veterans attended the launch of the Lincolnshire Poppy Appeal by the National Parade Marshal, John Thornhill. The new plastic-free poppy was also unveiled during the ceremony in the East Kirkby Aviation Heritage Centre Just Jane Lancaster hanger - and you can hear what a volunteer who has been selling poppies for 50 years thought of it.
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00:00 Lincolnshire Poppy Appeal launch saw the county unveiling of the new sustainable all-paper
00:07 poppy. Few, however, will wear it with as much pride as the veterans who were present
00:14 at East Kirkby Aviation Centre for the launch.
00:17 I'm Lois Burring, H2O Marines, and I was over in Normandy on D-Day with the first place
00:29 going in on Swords Inch. This is my friend here, he's a D-Day veteran also. He was serving
00:38 on the LCTs and he went in at Omaha, which is one of the American beaches. From there
00:48 on he was backwards and forwards to the UK picking up a new craft to deliver back over
00:54 to Normandy. So that went on for a considerable time of course. And after D-Day myself, we
01:04 served on the Trout Line every night for 100 nights. That was a protective defensive line
01:13 of ships to prevent the Germans who were at Leigh Harth coming in and going into the anchorage
01:22 to do as much damage as they could in there. So we were the defensive line and it was named
01:28 the Trout Line.
01:30 Now the launch of the Lincolnshire Poppy Appeal is always an important date on the calendar
01:35 for the Royal British Legion, but this year's extra special, can you explain why?
01:40 Well it's just getting so many people here. There's a lot of special people from headquarters
01:44 here to see how Lincolnshire do it. And that's what it's about, the Linc should do it and
01:51 we do it very proud and very professional.
01:54 Lincolnshire County REL is proud and I can say that with absolute confidence in being
01:59 honest. And that is due to the hard work and commitment displayed by a good few people.
02:07 I wish you all the best for this year and what I will say is it's been an absolute honour
02:14 and a privilege to be invited to come. I found my mission today to come and address you all
02:21 here.
02:22 The Royal British Legion is proud and in tradition of comradeship and support for every member
02:31 of the Armed Forces community. The Legion is not going anywhere. We're going to be here
02:40 in years to come and together we will continue to support those who need us.
02:48 [Bugle plays Reveille]
03:10 When you go home, tell them of us and say we ought to bother making their day.
03:24 Gemma Leaning, I'm the Poppyfield Manager for Lincolnshire.
03:30 Now I can see you're wearing the new poppy, can you tell me about it?
03:34 Yes, it's our new plastic free poppy that we've launched this year. It's one of our
03:40 new designs, a bit more of the eco-friendly. It's 100% made of paper, 100% recyclable and
03:47 it actually comes, 50% of the paper is from recycled coffee cups, believe it or not, and
03:53 the rest is responsibly resourced paper.
03:56 And these will be on sale around the county from today?
04:00 They are out there at the moment, yes you can get them. We are doing a blended approach
04:05 this year so you will see the older style poppy because we do need to use our stock
04:09 up of those. So just grab a poppy, wear it with pride and show that you care.
04:14 One fundraiser, honoured for 50 years service, had very strong opinions about the new design.
04:21 Grace, 50 years is a massive achievement. What's inspired you to come back year after year?
04:28 Well, to start with, my grandad, who I didn't know because he was killed in the Second World
04:34 War, was the first person to get a medal for his work with the Royal British Legion. So
04:40 at 16, I just turned 16, I started selling poppies and I haven't stopped since then,
04:46 all over the country. I am stopping shortly though because of ill health etc. But I've
04:53 enjoyed every minute of it. I go all over the place, I'll tell you where I go, all over
04:58 the place selling poppies. I don't know what I'm going to do when I retire.
05:03 What do you think to the new poppy? I don't like it, I'm sorry.
05:08 You don't? No I don't.
05:10 It's not the same? No it's not the same but it's a sign of the times and you've got to
05:15 move with the times I suppose so that's it.
05:18 The Parade of Standards was not just under the scrutiny of the National Parade Marshal.
05:24 Hi, I'm Tracy Turner, I'm one of the directors from Newton, Newton, Flag and Banner Makers.
05:32 Part of our remembrance, apart from wearing poppies and manufacturing flags, is we do
05:38 ceremonial standards. We do probably 95% of all the Royal British Legion.
05:43 You see, we're just doing the new nationals because they've had the crown change from
05:48 Queen to the Tudor crown for Charles and it's a very proud day to be here. We try to support
05:53 Lincolnshire where we can and see our work at work.
05:57 After the ceremony we caught up with the National Parade Marshal by the Just Jane Lancaster.
06:02 How did Lincolnshire do? Absolutely brilliant. So every single year they always have a huge
06:06 poppy peel launch and this year I believe is bigger than last year, a bit better than
06:10 last year and you've got Jane behind us, you've got a great hangar, hundreds and hundreds
06:15 of people, it's a really great launch of poppy peel.
06:18 The launch concluded with Just Jane taxing along the runway and the release of thousands
06:24 of poppy petals into the air.
06:26 [Loud poppy peel launch]
06:31 [Loud poppy peel launch]
06:36 [Loud poppy peel launch]